The big reveal of A is a plot line ABC Family has touted for the entire series. Every time we think we're close, show creator Marlene King pulls back another layer on the stinky onion that is A.

To recap: Season 1 is spent searching for Ali, who the girls originally believe is A. Season 2 ends with the reveal that Mona is A, but the info is basically useless once season 3 kicks off and Red Coat is introduced. In season 4, the show punks us by making Ezra look like a sketchball, but it's another false alarm. The current season has been back to the drawing board. Ahem, drAwing boArd. A's identity is the carrot the show has dangled in front of us since that first moment she popped up on the Liars' phones: "I'm still here bitches" is the first group message A ever sends, and it feels even more true five seasons later.

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But the show could go on without A. Those of us who have stuck with the series since the beginning — through every nonsensical plot twist and every moment of yelling JUST CALL THE COPS — aren't really here for a psycho murderer with an old-timey doll obsession. We're here because the four main characters are the best friends we wish we had, an inseparable group of besties who we want to watch laugh and cry and goof around until the very end.

I hope that ABC family pulls off the big A reveal during Tuesday's season 5 finale because I freaking love this show and I'm ready for it to evolve. Honestly, I don't even care who A is anymore, because the show doesn't have to be about her (or him...or ~them~) to be great. Here are six things that could happen to make seasons 6 and 7 the best seasons yet — no A required.

1. A is retired and an entirely new show format is introduced.

Rosewood will continue to be creepy as hell even without A, and we already know the girls know how to play detective. The show could introduce a new mystery every week that they work together to solve, similar to other case-of-the-week shows like Supernatural or Eye Candy or Law and Order. Think of the magical Halloween episodes, where the plotlines are usually self-contained and easier to follow. The show could reinvent itself as an entire season of episodes with one-off mini-crimes.

2. The show becomes PLL: The College Years.

Most shows suffer in a college setting (see: Saved By the Bell, Gossip Girl, or Vampire Diaries) because the details of high school — school dances, cliques, crushes — are central to the plot. But since PLL is about mysteries way beyond the hallways of high school, the show could transition to Penn State (or, say, a just-invented Rosewood College) without losing its essence. Having the girls live together in dorm rooms and frequent new locations besides The Brew coffee shop would go along way toward revitalizing the plot.

3. The Liars spend season six taking down A.

Let's assume the girls discover who A is in the season finale. They could still spend the next season hunting her down even if they know who they're looking for. For a while right after Mona was outed as A, I thought Marlene and company were going to take the show in this direction, but instead Mona became a side-plot when Red Coat entered the picture. But A doesn't need to be a question mark to wear her crazy pants. It's just as easy to be tortured by someone you know as by someone anonymous, and fighting a known villain would bring a different tension to the show.

4. The show could phase out the current cast.

To be clear, I never want to say goodbye to the four lead cast members, but the show could decide to have them graduate and continue the series with a new set of scrappy yet stylish high schoolers who are encountering A for the first time. This worked successfully for Friday Night Lights (my favorite show after PLL) and allowed a series about a high school football team to continue long after the first crop of starring players moved on. If Lucy Hale et al left PLL, some other things would have to shift so that the show doesn't fall apart. For instance, we'd probably see Ezra, Toby, and Caleb take on bigger roles so there'd be continuity. But that wouldn't be so bad, right?

5. The Liars could start a business.

One way to revamp a show is by introducing an ongoing plotline that can carry it for another few seasons — a good example is Grey's Anatomy, which got hella campy for a while, but saved itself when the doctors decided to buy the hospital. Suddenly the show had a whole new crop of business problems and other dramas to solve. If the PLL girls decided to go into business together — say, setting up some kind of social media company where they consult with area businesses (who inevitably would get tweets from anonymous psychos, etc.) — it'd let us see them do their thing without making every scary thing that happens on the show revolve around A.

6. Just let it become Sex and the City.

As much as I love that PLL isn't afraid to be dark and twisty — sometimes I can't watch it when I'm home alone because it freaks me the eff out — I would give all that up just to see Hanna snapping her one-liners, Spence running shit at college, Em finally having a legit relationship, and Aria continuing to balance her passions as an artist with the grown up life she's been navigating for the past several years. In other words, I'd be fine if the girls just moved to NYC or Philly and lived it up for a few years, dealing with love and life and internships and all the other stuff that gives the show so much heart. That's the real reason I tune in week after week.

The biggest thing that has changed for all of the longtime PLL viewers is that we're five years older than we were when the show debuted in 2010. ABC Family could, and should, decide to let the show grow up with us.